Photo Gallery

St Leonard's chapel, Newland

Newland Fete, hosted by the Beauchamp Community and The
Save the Children Fund, was held on Saturday 30th June 2012. Father Mark gave an interesting talk about the history of St
Leonard's Newland which is the chapel of the Beauchamp Community. If you
are interested in visiting churches this one is well worth a look. Here are some photos of the church together with
brief notes based on Father Mark's talk and a booklet we purchased in
the church.

St Leonard's lies to the east of and is connected to the
Beauchamp Community alms-houses (see photo above). The alms-houses were
built for retired workers on the Madresfield Estate who had lost their tied
cottages. These had been planned by Lady Charlotte Scott wife of the 3rd
Earl Beauchamp, John Reginald Pyndar Lygon. She died in 1846 but it was not until
1864 that the almshouses and the chapel (1867) came into being. The wall paintings
and stained glass windows were added over the next 20 years as gifts from
individual benefactors.

Below you will see a photo taken inside the church.

The bowl of the font at the west end of the nave dates from the twelfth
century and came from the old parish church of St Thomas the Martyr at Great
Malvern which was built before 1269 and demolished when parishioners bought The Priory at the time
of the Dissolution in the reign of Henry VIII (circa 1542).

The wall paintings, or frescoes, tell many Bible stories. Not easy for tired old eyes
to read especially as the inscriptions are in Latin, but there is a good
description in the booklet about the church.

The south aisle near the altar leads into a cloister off which is a
small 'mortuary' chapel (see photo below) where daily services are held.